LEO - POST MOVIE

[semilethal]

[ nobody asks where april found the van. some mild criminal activity feels irrelevant in light of the day they just had anyway, and they couldn't exactly walk all the way back to the lair.

not with leo like...this. not just leo either; raphael couldn't hardly hold his head up, hunched and clearly wearing his 'i'm the eldest and i won't complain' face as he cradles leo so carefully on their way to the van. mikey's hands and arms won't stop trembling, even when he twists them together and presses them to his plastron. donatello is sore all over and his skin and shell feel raw, like someone rubbed him down with sandpaper.

and leo's quiet. leo's too quiet.

so there they are in the cargo van, raph tucked toward the front with a leg stretched out for mikey to use as a pillow to doze upon. april and casey sit up front, throwing concerned glances over their shoulders as often as is safe while april slowly weaves the vehicle through the half-destroyed streets toward the nearest access point. splinter sits near the doors as their only other capable fighter, though he keeps his tail curled around leo's uninjured ankle.

and donatello, he's stripping off his gloves because he's going to have to touch his brother to get a better idea of his injuries, and his skin doesn't feel like his own and that'll interfere with his judgement. the fewer layers between he and his brother, the more accurate he can be. ]

Alrighty Leon. Look alive, let's...let's diagnose.

Comments

[neonleon]

[Everything fucking hurts. No one is asking where April found the van, and really after everything she's had to deal with around them, acquiring a van through unspoken means is likely the most normal thing she's done in the last 48 hours. Raph looks like he's ready to keel over, Mikey's hands are a nervous jittery shaking mess. Pops is on edge in a way Leonardo is still trying to get used to seeing ever since he found out about the Foot and Shredder.

He's still trying to process everything from the last day, the last few hours and how relieved he is that they got Raph back. He'll never say it out loud of course, he can't say it out loud, but as soon as they can go back to jokingly arguing, he's putting his everything into it so his brother knows how relieved he is.

Leo is pointedly not thinking about himself. He is categorically, intentionally, forcefully not thinking about what happened to him. How for those few seconds he was so sure that was it. He wasn't coming back. It was going to be him and Krang until eternity alone in that dimension. He's trying not to think about how his shoulder makes a popping sound every time they move his arm, or how sore his legs are from the overwork to get shit done. He could have died.

Even as he feels that little protective bit of their dad holding onto him.]

Wha? C'mon... Lookit me, Dee, I'm alive, it's fine.

[semilethal]

Ah yes...'alive,' the most oft-used measure of perfect health, he said not without a sense of irony, [ don mutters, already reaching to unlatch leonardo's belt and slide it out of the way so he can check leo's plastron. leo was, true to form, vague on the details of what happened in the prison realm so there could be all manner of wounds hiding beneath that shell.

there had been blood on his mouth. there could be internal bleeding. there could be a punctured lung, ruptured organs, blood pooling beneath skin or beneath shell and donnie wouldn't be able to-

donatello shakes his head, shakes out his arms with an impatient scowl. focus.

there are small scratches and faint surface spiderweb cracks along leo's plastron. donatello starts there, gently tracing and applying faint pressure to check for shifting material beneath. ]

Tell me what happened, [ he demands quietly, eyes shifting to leo's briefly, then to their other brothers before coming back. too quiet for raph and mikey to hear, but splinter's tail tightens ever so slightly. ]

[neonleon]

What?

[It's what he manages through half the brain fog that isn't drowned out by the soreness and pain. Every press against his plastron feels like a two ton weight pressing down on him.]

I- I told you guys. [The Super Abridged So His Family Doesn't Worry About Him Because They All Look Really Messed Up Already version. But he catches Donnie's eyes and the way his tone quiets, feels their father's tail tightening protectively around him. Pops is listening... Leonardo lowers his own voice, just barely above a whisper.] I kept him distracted long enough for Casey to pull the key. Portal chopped him - I'm keeping that by the way, works perfectly in use - and when it was just us, gave him some of my best one liners. Honestly you guys missed out.

[But every sore muscle, every time he gets a high pitched tone in his ear, the way he keeps having to lay his head back a bit.

Now my wrath will be reserved for you alone.

Thank god for their shells because maybe Donnie can't feel or hear how fast his heart is racing remembering. It's not that he didn't believe in his brothers, their Ninpo is proof enough that he does. It's more that he was certain there wasn't any way out. Krang and his lot couldn't figure it out for a thousand years, how could they have?]

So.... So don't worry.

[semilethal]

[ donatello isn't often one for comfort or platitudes. he'll let his brothers hang off of him, sometimes hug them on his own if they look truly crushed, but dropping topics or gentling his words for the sake of protecting feelings isn't something he does. it's not helpful, it complicates communication and problem-solving-

leo's panicking. donnie might not be able to check his pulse through his shell but he knows his brother, knows the signs of a discomfited brother, can tell in the way his eyes dart about, glaze over just briefly, the way he reaches for a joke like a hiker for their anchor line. ]

I'm not worried. [ donatello lets his flat tone work to his advantage here. calm, cool, a little detached even as his stomach bubbles with utter discomfort over the thought of what happened to his brother in there, so bad he can't even talk about it. this isn't about leo being terrified, ready to die, about leo letting some evil thing tear into him because he thought it was the best he could do for them instead of coming back home. ] I'm examining you. I need to know what supplies to send Mikey for once we get back home.

[ no, he's not afraid, but he is something else. something that makes the sensitivity of his skin fade to numbness as he reaches behind leo's neck to feel the segments of his spine, pushing lightly at the cervical vertebrae to check for swelling, watch for flinching. that something has already pulled his brow down hard, set his jaw teeth against teeth, grinding together until he remembers to open his jaw again and reset. he's not angry, frustrated, or irritated- that's too petty.

leo has (small) cracks in his plastron, a goose egg of a lump on the back of his skull, and blood in his mouth. leo has blood in his mouth. leo was hurt by a horrible thing and now won't let donatello care for him, maybe even can't. leo almost left them forever, because that was an acceptable option to him. some fucking thing hurt his brother and then just ended up locked back in the same cage he was in before after cracking leo's plastron, hitting leo's head, drawing blood from leo's mouth. ] So if you can't talk about it then you'll be still and let me look after you, and I won't hear anything to the contrary. Capiche?

[ donatello's not mad, no. he's furious. he's got hate and grief and nothing to put it on or to, because the monster that almost took two of his brothers from him is out of his reach. ]

[neonleon]

[Leonardo looks up to him before letting Donatello move his head around to feel at the back of his neck. Get a hiss between his teeth for his efforts and a muttered:] Not worried, right.

[If Donnie weren't worried, he wouldn't be trying to check him over this immediately. And if the grip is any indicator, furious on top of that. But louder than Donnie's anger, louder than his own heart racing, what he hears loudest is Splinter sigh. Disappointment, maybe, that Leo won't just answer the question and accept Donatello's concern for what it is. Or maybe that Leonardo had made the call the way he did. It's impossible to tell, it always has been with Dad.

He's not stopping Donatello from examining him, but his muscles tense when he presses down on the back of his head, when he's lifted at a weird angle and something hard presses into his chest wrong. No, because this is how Donatello deals.]

Looks like you guys ar- [And that's a pothole, and he can pinpoint where that crack in the lower left part of his plastron is now, it'd only been sore down in the subway but it's so much worse now and that's great- like the stars he's seeing in his eyes before he hears that muffled shouting of April's - "Sorry 'bout that! People can't DRIVE in New York" - voice carries over.]

Just- Some bandaids and good as new. [Did that sound as strained to Donnie as it did in his own ears? He hopes not.]

[semilethal]

[ if anything it sounded worse. leo makes a sound at that pothole like someone just shoved a knife between his ribs, his already bruised skull almost bruising again against the cargo van's floor, and donatello makes a decision then and there, his own comfort be damned. ]

All right, [ he grunts, scooting over to the van's wall and carefully levering leonardo into his lap, between his legs, slumping so that leo is half-elevated with an arm over each thigh, his head carefully cradled between don's hands as he rests him against his own plastron. april's jacket is flung into the back, startling donnie even as he grabs it on reflex, but he catches the thumbs-up from casey and april's quick glance over her shoulder and he nods.

the jacket is balled up and placed beneath leo's head against don's stomach, and donatello uses his legs and arms to hold leo as steady during the bumpy ride as he can manage.

he doesn't think there's anything broken under leo's plastron, but he can't know for sure without x-rays, and the jostling won't help keep it that way. leo has to be held still, and with their dad on the lookout for any residual nasties, raphael holding onto mikey and mikey just barely hanging onto consciousness, it falls to donatello.

hah. 'falls.' as if he'd let someone else handle something this important. ]

We are actually fine, by the way, [ donnie mutters, though to varying degrees of fine. none of them are in danger of internal bleeding at least, though it was probably a close thing with raphael. he'll need a close examination too, make sure that krang mutation didn't leave any nasty surprises in his blood. mikey's ailments are probably more of a mystic nature, which draxum will need to check out when he gets back from wherever the hell he disappeared to. okay. list. ]

Okay. Stabilize. X-rays, liquids. MRI later. Blood tests for Raph. Call Draxum.

[neonleon]

[Even if the continued, totally unnecessary movements ache, the final resting spot is all right. He's jostling around a lot less now. And that's probably good if he remembers first aid stuff right, jostling an injured person is bad so you definitely want to do it less.

It isn't until he's getting his breath back that he hears it... And immediately loses it with a struggling little chuckle.]

Are you really makin' a list right now?

[He knows this is how Donnie calms down, lists, data collection, tinkering on stuff. But there is just something about the list ending at 'Call Draxum' after all the serious sounding stuff that tickled his funny bone.]

Is 'buy milk' on the list too?

[semilethal]

[ thIS fuCKEr ] Can it, Nardo! Whose fault is it that I am reduced to making lists aloud, like some sort of simpleton!? [ he can't even flail around like he usually does when he's upset! because he has to stay still!! FOR YOU!!!! ]

[neonleon]

[It's probably a good thing his hearing still sounds muffled or that would be really loud. As it is, he's relieved to hear some kind of nickname from him.]

Haha... Gotcha. Also pretty sure that's Krang's fault.

im done with fancy html, life is too short

[semilethal]

It is entirely yours. [you get the blame now! that's what happens when you try to sacrifice yourself without consulting your brothers first!]

[neonleon]

[It's better hearing Donnie riled up than that quiet anger before. Better because now Leo knows they'll be all right. Even as his muscles start to relax around this turn April's taking.

He thinks he shouldn't be this tired, but then thinks about the last two days and... well. Maybe he should be. Sleep sounds pretty good, as the darkness starts to close in on his vision.]

Yeah yeah...

[semilethal]

[and donatello is tempted to keep leo up, to jostle him and use the concussion as an excuse. not out of spite, but just for-

just to make sure.

but leo really does need the rest, and so long as donnie can nudge him every so often and get a grunt out of him, it's fine. so as the van trundles and swerves about, donatello holds leonardo as carefully still as is possible, caging his brother in and holding his head and neck still with april's jacket in his hands. raphael is somewhat awake, glancing over at him and down at leo, obviously desperate for an update but donatello can't give him one just yet.

they finally arrive at the access, thankfully an incline without a ladder so they don't have to struggle through that, and the doors are flung open. raphael shakes mikey awake and starts to reach for leonardo before donatello shakes his head and jerks his chin to a stumbling mikey. the last thing they need is another concussion to deal with if mikey were to faint, which he looks about two steps away from doing. whatever that portal thing was, it must have taken a lot out of him.]

Leo, [don says softly, tapping against his shoulder.] We're going into the tunnels.

[neonleon]

[Leonardo doesn't feel the ride once he's drifted off. Each heartbeat is a harsh percussion of metal and anger, the large robot body fists slamming down into his plastron and each bump in the road another slam into the cement underneath him.

Y̴̛̯̮̒̒̈ǫ̷̻̑̅͂̚u̶̢͚̔̾̚'̵̛͈͕̟̫̲͛̌͋͠v̵̨͔̩̙͚̈́͘͘e̶͓̤̹͉͑̍́͊ ̸͓̠̏̈́̌̈́ȓ̵̗̏ư̴̯̜͋̉i̷̪͇͇͐̍͌̐̀ͅņ̴͕̀͛e̷͓͕̙̓̚͜ḏ̸̀͊͌̓ ̵͉͔́̉͐͌͘e̶̤͂̉v̶̨̡̳̱̪̈͝e̷̩̭̪͗ŕ̴̦̝̪̋ỳ̷͕̗̐͐͊͋t̴̗̋̾̂̒h̵͚̝̳͉͔̕͝i̶̛̬̻͑̒͘ṉ̵̛̭̙̌̅͐ḡ̶̱̗̫͎͂ͅ

The physical tapping to his shoulder jerks him out of the nightmare. He'll never admit that's what it was, no one can prove such a thing. But he's breathless for the split second of weightlessness between dream and waking, Krang's angry glare over him melting into Donnie's tired one.]

The- Right...

[It's a herculean effort to start pushing himself to sit up, gritting his teeth as each individual bruise and injury greets him on the way up.]

[semilethal]

[it's hard to miss a fitful rest when the person having it is literally in your arms, but donatello doesn't comment. it's not going to help anybody, and it's irrelevant to the task at hand besides.

that task being 'get leo into the lair,' which may prove more taxing than donnie had anticipated. he watches leo struggle, watches him slowly, painfully roll from his sitting position up onto his knees. the cracks on his plastron betray the wounds there, but the back of his shell can't be much better. the truth is, there's no way to help without hurting leo somehow, but-]

...all right, [donnie disengages his battle shell. since it's composed of mystic energy it simply dissolves, and donnie mourns the loss of his physical battle shell back in the krang ship. still, he slings april's jacket over his shoulders before slipping down to a knee in front of leo, his soft shell turned toward his brother.] Get on.

[neonleon]

[He's managed to get halfway to his feet when Donatello offers.

It's a rare offer, even. Donnie hates physical touch like this, especially anything longer than a couple of seconds. Offering a piggy back ride? Monumental character growth. And as much as he wants to razz on him some, for this? He'll leave it alone and instead take the offer as it's genuinely given.

A moment to breathe before sort of half-slumping onto him before shifting to something easier.]

...Thanks.

[semilethal]

Ugh, don't thank me. [donatello's not exactly the most physically fit of the turtles (okay fine he's the least fit) but he can at least carry his brother. he is undoubtedly the least injured, the least in need of assistance, the most capable, the least upset-

heh. you're one to talk, big bro. hero moves are totally your style.

donnie bites his lip so hard he tastes copper. he hitches his brother up further onto his shell and plods after his family for the lair.]

[neonleon]

Whatever you say, little brother.

[He tries to relax, rest his head down on Donnie's shoulder or shell, whatever's closest. But man, Donatello is really not made out for heavy lifting or cardio, huh. He's definitely more of the quick sprint and call it a day... They should probably work on that at some point.

He catches a glimpse of Splinter watching them, meets his father's eyes for just a moment before closing them. He hears Raph collapse heavily onto the couch, Mikey on the floor next to him. He can even make out just the sounds of their youngest brother still rubbing at his hands, his arms. He doesn't know what Mike did, but... It saved him. He'll have to come up with something later to thank him that isn't super obvious that's what he's doing. He still can't get a good read on Donnie, though. Doesn't seem like much physical, but something definitely got to him. More than just Leo potentially not coming back.]

So where to, Ferry-man?

[semilethal]

I'm taking Leo to Medical. Raph, you and Mikey check in once you've rested. [the unspoken instruction being 'do not come in yet,' though he doubts he can stop them for very long. maybe he can at least get these x-rays done before his brothers start desperation-cuddling each other.

that being said, donatello isn't exactly bursting with energy either. he stops long enough to ask (read: beg) april and splinter to keep raph and mikey out of medbay until he's had a chance to give leo a decent examination. casey cannot be dissuaded but promises to be quiet and stay over in the corner, wringing his hands as he peers worriedly at leo as he follows.

don drags them over to the cot and finally releases his brother's legs so he can roll onto it. don has to rearrange the pillows and adjust the angle so leo can lay as flat as possible, but he keeps april's jacket over his shoulders like a cape because not having something covering his shell feels...bad.]

Don't move, [don orders shortly, grabbing for the portable x-ray on its mechanical arm, installed after the whole shredder fiasco as an unfortunate necessity. his tone gets flatter, his words more succinct, even if he's much more hands-on with ensuring his brother's comfort than he usually ever would be.

not that he's usually the one doing the medical stuff, but they don't exactly have a choice right now.]

[neonleon]

[That shifting from Donnie's back to the cot is more painful than it has any right to be. And just how many times will he have to move? It's becoming an issue, he thinks. But flat and as comfortable as he can manage on this thing.]

Yep. Not moving, that's easy, easiest thing you could've asked.

[Even if his breath is shaky, even if he has a tremor in his fingers and knees he can't really stop. The x-ray itself is showing a hairline fracture between his sternum and ribs, the rest of the bones just jostled and not in a good way. But those cracks in his plastron are a problem, the one in his side just at the edge of the plastron jabbing into his side now.

Krang wasn't exactly pulling any punches at the prospect of being trapped alone with Leonardo in that dimensional prison.]

[semilethal]

[the worst thing is that donatello suspects krang was pulling his punches somewhat, probably to keep leo alive long enough to toy with for a while. it makes logical sense, even if contemplating the reasoning behind why leo isn't just a bag of bone shards makes donnie's hands feel curiously numb.

he squeezes his fingers into fists a couple times before moving the x-ray arm back out of leo's airspace and gets to work hunting down the bio-patches and shell spackle.]

Casey, go get some warm water and a towel. Leo's shell needs to be clean for the patches to adhere properly.

[neonleon]

[Casey looks both unwilling to leave sight of his would-be-mentor and equally eager to help. The latter wins out as he nods and he ducks out of the area quickly.

Leonardo watches the kid leave, then reaches for Donatello's arm, voice low and quick.]

I'll tell you what happened if you tell me why you don't have your battle shell. And what happened to Raph and Mikey.

[semilethal]

[donatello jerks his wrist away from leo's hand with alarming speed. he meets leo's eyes for all of a second before turning again to retrieve and set out forceps, tweezers, and a suture kit beside a half-empty box of alcohol swabs on a nearby rolling cart.]

We'll know more about Raph and Mikey once I'm done in here with you. They're fine. [obviously, donatello is also fine.]

[neonleon]

[That jerk away catches him off guard. It leaves Leo staring at the empty space where his brother's wrist should be in his grasp. Something's wrong, and he can't connect the dots the way he normally would (the concussion, probably. it is probably definitely the concussion).

He knows something happened to each of them, and he's too tired to really argue fully the way he wants to. But that Don won't even tell him is... Something. Something he should be worrying about more. But fine. If he's not willing to tell him, then maybe Leo doesn't want to think about Krang trying to kill him, or Krang-zombified-Raph nearly strangling him to death.

He carefully closes his fingers into a loose fist, laying his head back again.]

Fine.

[semilethal]

[and donnie just. gets to work.

luckily the broken section of plastron at the corner hadn't dug too deep into the skin. donnie plucks out the chip and cleans and bandages the wound. casey returns with the water and towels, and donnie works on wiping down leo's plastron without agitating the cracks. alcohol swabs next, then biodegradable patches, then the spackle to hold it all together while it heals. waterproof bandage pad, gauze to keep the wounds clean and dry, and that takes care of the cracks.

...now for everything else. leo has serious swelling wounds on his face and blood in his mouth. considering he's not still spitting out blood he probably doesn't need stitches inside his mouth, but donnie wouldn't put it past him to be swallowing it to keep his family from worrying.

he retrieves a penlight, avoiding leo's eyes.] Open.

why are you awake ma'am

[neonleon]

[No one can prove if he was or was not swallowing the blood this whole time. But he can tell Donnie's avoiding it now. Won't look him in the eyes when he was so insistent before. Leonardo has sat patiently while Donnatello worked. Normally he'd be doing this. He'd be the one handling the injuries and patch up jobs. The worst is waiting for the spackle and everything to dry, so he can't really move.

The order to 'open' is not entirely welcome. But far be it from him to make this worse. So he opens his mouth. There's definitely some dried and fresh blood in there. At some point he bit down on the inside of his cheek and that cut pretty harshly, but who knows where the rest has come from.]